The Care of Books Part 13

Quaeris cur tota non sit mendicus in Urbe: Tecta parat Sixtus suppeditatque cibos.

CLEMENTIA. OPERATIO BONA.

XV. _A similar view._

Jure Antoninum paulo vis Sixte subesse Nam vere hic pius est impius ille pius.

ELECTIO SACRA. VERA GLORIA.

XVI. _A similar view, with the Obelisk._

Transfers Sixte pium transferre an dignior alter Transferri an vero dignior alter erat.

RECOGNITIO. GRAt.i.tUDO.

XVII. _The Obelisk, now in front of S. Peter's, before it was removed._

Qui Regum tumulis obeliscus serviit olim Ad cunas Christi tu pie Sixte locas.

OBLATIO. DEVOTIO.

XVIII. _A fleet at sea._

Instruit hic Sixtus cla.s.ses quibus aequora purget Et Solymos victos sub sua jura trahat.

PROVIDENTIA. SECURITAS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 18. Rough groundplan of the great hall of the Vatican Library, to ill.u.s.trate the account of the decoration.]

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIAN LIBRARIES CONNECTED WITH CHURCHES. USE OF THE APSE. MONASTIC COMMUNITIES. S. PACHOMIUS. S. BENEDICT AND HIS SUCCESSORS. EACH HOUSE HAD A LIBRARY. ANNUAL AUDIT OF BOOKS. LOAN ON SECURITY. MODES OF PROTECTION.

CURSES. PRAYERS FOR DONORS. ENDOWMENT OF LIBRARIES. USE OF THE CLOISTER.

DEVELOPMENT OF CISTERCIAN BOOK-ROOM. COMMON PRESS. CARRELLS. GLa.s.s.

The evidence collected in the last chapter shews that what I have there called the Roman conception of a library was maintained, even by Christian ecclesiastics, during many centuries of our era. I have next to trace the beginning and the development of another cla.s.s of libraries, directly connected with Christianity. We shall find that the books intended for the use of the new communities were stored in or near the places where they met for service, just as in the most ancient times the safe-keeping of similar treasures had been entrusted to temples.

It is easy to see how this came about. The necessary service-books would be placed in the hands of the ecclesiastic who had charge of the building in which the congregation a.s.sembled. To these volumes--which at first were doubtless regarded in the same light as vestments or sacred vessels--treatises intended for edification or instruction would be gradually added, and so the nucleus of a library would be formed.

The existence of such libraries does not rest on inference only. There are numerous allusions to them in the Fathers and other writers; S. Jerome, for instance, advises a correspondent to consult church-libraries, as though every church possessed one[115]. As however the allusions to them are general, and say nothing about extent or arrangement, this part of my subject need not detain us long[116].

The earliest collection of which I have discovered any record is that got together at Jerusalem, by Bishop Alexander, who died A.D. 250. Eusebius, when writing his Ecclesiastical History some eighty years later, describes this library as a storehouse of historical records, which he had himself used with advantage in the composition of his work[117]. A still more important collection existed at Caesarea in Palestine. S. Jerome says distinctly that it was founded by Pamphilus, "a man who in zeal for the acquisition of a library wished to take rank with Demetrius Phalereus and Pisistratus[118]." As Pamphilus suffered martyrdom in A.D. 309, this library must have been got together soon after that at Jerusalem. It is described as not only extensive, but remarkable for the importance of the ma.n.u.scripts it contained. Here was the supposed Hebrew original of S.

Matthew's Gospel[119], and most of the works of Origen, got together by the pious care of Pamphilus, who had been his pupil and devoted admirer.

S. Jerome himself worked in this library, and collated there the ma.n.u.scripts which Origen had used when preparing his Hexapla[120]. At Cirta the church and the library were evidently in the same building, from the way in which they are spoken of in the account of the persecution of A.D. 303-304. "The officers," we are told, "went into the building (_domus_) where the Christians were in the habit of meeting." There they took an inventory of the plate and vestments. "But," proceeds the narrative, "when they came to the library, the presses there were found empty[121]." Augustine, on his deathbed, A.D. 430, gave directions that "the library of the church [at Hippo], and all the ma.n.u.scripts, should be carefully preserved by those who came after him[122]."

Further, there appears to be good reason for believing that when a church had a triple apse, the lateral apses were separated off by a curtain or a door, the one to contain the sacred vessels, the other the books. This view, which has been elaborated by De Rossi in explanation of three recesses in the thickness of the wall of the apse of a small private oratory discovered in Rome in 1876[123], is chiefly supported by the language of Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, who lived from about A.D. 353 to A.D. 431. He describes a basilica erected by himself at Nola in honour of S. Felix, martyr, as having "an apse divided into three (_apsidem trichoram_)[124]"; and in a subsequent pa.s.sage, after stating that there are to be two recesses, one to the right, the other to the left of the apse, he adds, "these verses indicate the use of each[125]," and gives the following couplets, with their headings:

_On the right of the Apse._

Hic locus est veneranda penus qua conditur, et qua Ponitur alma sacri pompa ministerii.

Here are the sacred vessels stored, and here The peaceful trappings of our holy rites.

_On the left of the same._

Si quem sancta tenet meditandi in lege voluntas Hic poterit residens sacris intendere libris.

Here he whose thoughts are on the laws of G.o.d May sit and ponder over holy books.

As De Rossi explains, the first of the two niches was intended to contain the vessels and furniture of the altar; the second was reserved for the safe-keeping of the sacred books. The word _trichora_, in Greek [Greek: tricho], is used by later writers to designate a three-fold division of any object--as for instance, by Dioscorides, of the seed-pod of the acacia[126].

Whether this theory of the use of the apse be accurate or fanciful, the purely Christian libraries to which I have alluded were undoubtedly connected, more or less closely, with churches; and I submit that the libraries which in the Middle Ages were connected with cathedrals and collegiate churches are their lineal descendants.

I have next to consider the libraries formed by monastic communities, the origin of which may be traced to very early times. Among the Christians of the first three centuries there were enthusiasts who, discontented with the luxurious life they led in the populous cities along the coasts of Africa and Syria, fled into the Egyptian deserts, there to lead a life of rigorous self-denial and religious contemplation. These hermits were presently joined by other hermits, and small communities were gradually formed, with a regular organization that foreshadowed the Rules and Customs of the later monastic life. Those who governed these primitive monasteries soon realised the fact that without books their inmates would relapse into barbarism, and libraries were got together. The Rule of S.

Pachomius (A.D. 292-345), whose monastery was at Tabennisi near Denderah in Upper Egypt, provides that the books of the House are to be kept in a cupboard (_fenestra_) in the thickness of the wall. Any brother who wanted a book might have one for a week, at the end of which he was bound to return it. No brother might leave a book open when he went to church or to meals. In the evening the officer called "the Second," that is, the second in command, was to take charge of the books, count them, and lock them up.[127]

These provisions, insisted upon at a very early date, form a suitable introduction to the most important section of my subject--the care of books by the Monastic Orders. With them book-preserving and book-producing were reduced to a system, and in their libraries--the public libraries of the Middle Ages--literature found a home, until the invention of printing handed over to the world at large the duties which had been so well discharged by special communities. This investigation is full of difficulty; and, though I hope to arrive at some definite conclusions respecting the position, size, dimensions, and fittings of monastic libraries, I must admit that my results depend to a certain extent on a.n.a.logy and inference. It should be remembered that in England the monasteries were swept away more than three centuries ago by a sudden catastrophe, and that those who destroyed them were far too busy with their own affairs to place on record the aspect or the plan of what they were wrecking. In France again, though little more than a century has elapsed since her monasteries were overwhelmed by the Revolution, and though descriptions and views of many of her great religious houses have been preserved, and much has been done in the way of editing catalogues of their ma.n.u.scripts, there is still a lamentable dearth of information on my particular subject.

I shall begin by quoting some pa.s.sages from the Rules and Customs of the different Orders, which shew (1) that reading was encouraged and enforced by S. Benedict himself, with whom the monastic life, as we conceive it, may be said to have originated; (2) that subsequently, as Order after Order was founded, a steady development of feeling with regard to books, and an ever-increasing care for their safe-keeping, can be traced.

The Rule of S. Benedict was made public early in the sixth century; and the later Orders were but offshoots of the Benedictine tree, either using his Rule or basing their own statutes upon it. It will therefore be desirable to begin this research by examining what S. Benedict said on the subject of study, and I will translate a few lines from the 48th chapter of his Rule, _Of daily manual labour_.

Idleness is the enemy of the soul; hence brethren ought, at certain seasons, to occupy themselves with manual labour, and again, at certain hours, with holy reading....

Between Easter and the calends of October let them apply themselves to reading from the fourth hour till near the sixth hour.

From the calends of October to the beginning of Lent let them apply themselves to reading until the second hour.... During Lent, let them apply themselves to reading from morning until the end of the third hour ...

and, in these days of Lent, let them receive a book apiece from the library, and read it straight through.

These books are to be given out at the beginning of Lent[128].

In this pa.s.sage the _library_--by which a book-press is probably to be understood--is specially mentioned. In other words, at that early date the formation of a collection of books was contemplated, large enough to supply the community with a volume apiece, without counting the service-books required for use in the church.

The Benedictine Order flourished and increased abundantly for more than four centuries, until, about A.D. 912, the order of Cluni was established.

It was so called from the celebrated abbey near Macon in Burgundy, which, though not the first house of the Order in point of date, became subsequently the first in extent, wealth, and reputation. As a stricter observance of the Rule of S. Benedict was the main object which the founder of this Order had in view, the Benedictine directions respecting study are maintained and developed. The Customs prescribe the following regulations for books:

On the second day of Lent the only pa.s.sage of the Rule to be read in Chapter is that concerning the observance of Lent.

Then shall be read aloud a note (_brevis_) of the books which a year before had been given out to brethren for their reading. When a brother's name is called, he rises, and returns the book that had been given to him; and if it should happen that he has not read it through, he is to ask forgiveness for his want of diligence.